By Zephyria “Son of a bitch!”
As soon as the live broadcast ended, Hwang Young-chul exploded in anger and threw an expensive bottle of whiskey. Crash! The whiskey bottle shattered with a loud noise, sending shards of glass flying in all directions. The most glittering shard landed on the desk, where a gleaming golden nameplate lay.
[Hwang Young-chul, Minister of the National Land Safety Department]
Kim Jong-seok, who had been standing by like a guard, watching the broadcast together, flinched.
“You bastard, if you’re a Commissioner, you should have found out how they were doing that! Or stopped that announcement! At the very least, you should have made sure even those low-ranks couldn’t get a foothold in the government! Earn the money you were paid to be in that position, you bastard!”
Again, the sound of crashing and shattering echoed as expensive items were destroyed. However, Kim Jong-seok could only lower his head without a sound. It was true; without his cousin, he could never have dreamed of reaching his current position.
The National Land Safety Department, which had once been briefly under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency before becoming independent, was now the most powerful institution in the government. Under the pretext of suppressing corrupted Awakened and dealing with monsters for the citizens, it had been granted its own army, as well as an Awakened unit, the Special Suppression Unit, directly under the Rift Management Agency. Using this as an excuse, it received an enormous budget.
Hwang Young-chul, who had ascended to the position of Minister of the National Land Safety Department through all sorts of collusion and backroom dealings, harbored grand ambitions. He wanted to gather all of the Republic of Korea’s Awakened under the National Land Safety Department to create a powerful military like in the past.
However, the biggest obstacle to this was the Sunrise Guild. A High-level Awakener with a somewhat exaggerated reputation as a national hero was spouting nonsense about protecting the rights of Awakened, which was incredibly troublesome. So, he persuaded Go Jae-won, one of the guild executives.
‘Listen, when will you be satisfied with the position of a mere team member with no official title? While it can’t be helped for Lee Hyun-muk, who is a High-level Awakener, you should at least push aside Lee Chan-ha and get the title of Deputy Team Leader. The position of Deputy Team Leader in the world’s top guild.’
He had only persuaded him a little, but Go Jae-won readily agreed to cooperate. However, the result of lending even an Awakened with a rare illusion ability was the disappearance of Lee Hyun-muk and the entire Sunrise Team. At first, he was utterly bewildered, but upon further thought, it wasn’t so bad.
Was Lee Hyun-muk the only High-level Awakener in the Republic of Korea? There was also Jeong Si-young, who was much more cooperative. As long as Jeong Si-young was aligned with the Rift Management Agency, the Minister’s life would not be in great danger. He was secretly pleased, thinking it was good that he had bought land near the Rift Management Agency.
The absence of Lee Hyun-muk and the Sunrise Team was quite fatal. Hwang Young-chul blamed the ensuing chaos on the lazy Awakened. When monsters that Jeong Si-young alone found difficult to handle appeared, he hired foreign mercenaries with enormous tax money. He spent three years living a life no less happy than anyone else, but surprisingly, Lee Hyun-muk and the Sunrise Team returned from the Abyss!
This was not welcome news for Hwang Young-chul at all. Despite imposing a press embargo (an agreement to postpone reporting on a covered matter for a certain period), the media outlet completely ignored it, making it impossible to bury the news.
With Lee Hyun-muk’s return known to the entire nation, he tried his best to find evidence that the returnees had severe Contamination Symptoms and needed to be isolated and confined. They had returned from the Abyss, a terrifying unknown space, so it was inevitable that they would be contaminated.
However, the bodies of the Awakened who returned from the Abyss were astonishingly clean and normal. They remained so no matter how many times they were tested. Even more surprising was that they had learned how to treat Corruption from the Abyss.
A method to treat Corruption! Hwang Young-chul was burning with desire to find out the method somehow. But Lee Hyun-muk and the others refused to speak, and he had no expectations for the one low-rank Awakened who returned with them, who seemed like a clueless recent graduate.
‘Listen, what kind of situation are we in? So many people are suffering from Corruption! I understand it was difficult in the Abyss. If you want compensation, name your price. I will give you anything for the sake of national interest.’
Recalling how Lee Hyun-muk used to step up without complaint when he invoked national interest or citizen safety, Hwang Young-chul pleaded. Lee Hyun-muk smiled faintly and, for some reason, looked at him with chilling black eyes, unlike before. Hwang Young-chul felt as if the other party was a terrifying monster wearing a human skin, and he broke out in a cold sweat. He dismissed it as the arrogance of a young man who had hurt his pride and desperately denied the fear.
‘Will you truly give me anything? If so… promise to hand over the Minister position to Captain Jeong Si-young. If the Minister position is difficult, the Commissioner position is fine too.’
At those words, Hwang Young-chul could only clamp his mouth shut. Hand over the Minister position of the National Land Safety Department to Jeong Si-young…?! He couldn’t! The thought of an Awakened who was already running wild, a commoner who had gained power by luck, sitting in the seat he had struggled so hard to climb to made his blood pressure rise. The same went for the Commissioner position.
‘I knew it.’
As he kept his mouth shut, Lee Hyun-muk’s lips curved into a smile, as if he had expected this reaction. However, his eyes were a vast, dark black, completely different from his mouth.
‘You don’t know what you did wrong, and you don’t repent. There are so many like you… And you will undoubtedly continue to commit the same mistakes in the future?’
His voice was heard without his lips moving. Had he seen wrong, or heard wrong? As Hwang Young-chul’s eyes widened in surprise, Lee Hyun-muk left without a reply. It took some time for Hwang Young-chul to regain his senses. He desperately tried to dismiss this inexplicable fear as wounded pride. Then, belatedly, he became angry.
What was even more infuriating was that if Lee Hyun-muk publicized this negotiation, it would be of no benefit to him. This was because Lee Hyun-muk and Jeong Si-young had overwhelming public support.
“Lee Hyun-muk, you insolent bastard….”
As he ground his teeth, Kim Jong-seok, who had been watching nervously, said in a voice that seemed to crawl.
“I-I’m sorry. I tried to stop the press conference, but it had already been reported to all media outlets….”
“Are you kidding me?!”
Hwang Young-chul became even more enraged by his incompetent cousin’s excuse. Many of the announcements made at today’s press conference were extremely troublesome. Because the Sunrise Guild had withdrawn, the value of the Sunrise Guild, which the government had acquired at great expense, plummeted. In the live broadcast watched by the entire nation, they openly treated a Corrupted person, and an Awakened alliance that had been prevented was formed. He was on the verge of going mad from the pressure from his superiors. As he picked up a heavy flower vase this time, Kim Jong-seok screamed.
“Hurry and go get us a negotiation for Eternal Stones! If you don’t bring back even one, consider that day your funeral!”
“Ah, I understand! So please put that down! Aaargh!As soon as Kim Jong-seok rushed out and closed the door, the vase thrown at the door shattered. Seething with rage, Hwang Young-chul slumped into his seat. He ran his sparse hair through his fingers. What on earth should he do? He had to do something… Was there no other way?
[I’m making a guild today]
So I need to get a loan for Eternal Stones
I’m going to treat my mom
Guild members wanted (1/n)
└ Nanana (2/n)
└ Me too, me too (3/n)
└ Get out of my way, I’m first (4/n)
[They’re only treating Awakened first?]
Then what about civilians…
Are we supposed to live like this, unable to get hospital treatment?
This is really unfair, damn it.
Lee Hyun-muk was also an arrogant, power-showing bastard Awakened, huhㅋ
└ Try going here (link)
It’s a link to apply for the Treatment and Custody Center, it just changes the application category, but civilians can apply too.
└ ㅋㅋSo what? They mainly take severe cases.
└ Then of course they should take severe cases first. Unlike severe cases, mild cases can still live their lives in society. Severe cases can’t even come out.
└ I don’t care about severe cases, treat mild cases too.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I knew whiny posts like this would come out. You want mild cases treated too
[Isn’t this something the government should do?]
Why is Lee Hyun-muk’s guild doing this?
Something this important should be handled by the government, why is Lee Hyun-muk monopolizing it?
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’ve seen the most absurd nonsense.
└ If it were you, would you hand over a treatment method you risked your life to obtain to the government? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I wouldn’t trade it even for 10 billion won.
└ What reason is there to trust the government? When monsters appear, reporting to a nearby guild is faster than the army being dispatched.
└ I’ve also been rescued by guilds more often than by the government.
└ What’s more, the government fines you if you report a monster with a higher grade than it actually is.
└ ???????? Don’t lie, surely not.
└ From a civilian’s perspective, it clearly looked like a Grade 7, so when I reported it as a Grade 7 monster, they fined me heavily for false reporting because it was a Grade 5. I was already struggling to make a living, so I thought I should have just died instead of reporting it.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They’re really bastards. When your life is on the line, who has time to worry about grades?
└ Do you know why? Special Units are dispatched starting from Grade 7. They don’t want to deploy Special Units for something like Grade 5.
└ All the National Assembly members live near the Rift Management Agency, damn it ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Is the treatment really effective?I saw the press conference, it took 27 minutes for mild cases.
Even if they only treat mild cases, it’s only 48 people a day.
When will it ever be finished?
└ Please consider spacing.
└ The press conference said they have several of them, so they can treat more than that.
└ The Eternal Stones were small, so larger ones should be more effective.
└ I’m willing to wait even if it takes 10 years.
└ Yeah, as long as it’s not exported abroad, then the chance will come someday.
[Shouldn’t we really explore the Abyss?]
You said there’s a way to treat Corruption inside.
Then they should send people to explore and bring it back.
Not just sit around like this.
└ Didn’t you see what the teacher said at the press conference? That even Lee Hyun-muk faced insurmountable dangers?
└ Agreed. If you send an intermediate awakened, they’ll die 100%, and if you send a high-level awakened, they might or might not come back alive. Who would go?
└ Then send Lee Hyun-muk again.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Because of people like you, it wouldn’t be strange if Lee Hyun-muk defected.
└ If he says he’s defecting, we have to stop him.
└ How can you stop a High-level Awakened from defecting? Do you think the government exempts Awakened from taxes for no reason? They’re begging them to stay by offering money? They have no means to stop High-level Awakened from defecting, so they don’t even collect taxes.
└ Just tell the Special Units to stop them.
└ The Special Units, who are already busy, will monitor 24 hours? And try to stop a High-level Awakened who has even Re-awakened, by force? Get out of your fantasy, please.
[But why is it called ‘Big Sheep’?]
I don’t understand why the guild name is ‘Big Sheep’.
└ Is it a typo? If the first was Sunrise, then the next should naturally be Sun.
└ Surely they wouldn’t make a typo at such an important press conference.
└ It’s not a typo. I just saw the Sun Guild logo, and it’s a sheep.
└ The logo is cute.
└ But seriously, why sheep? Why? I’m really curious.